1934 Big Strike

Police-using-tear-gas-against-striking-longshoremen-on-Rincon-Hill-aad-5140.jpg

Police using tear gas against strikers on Rincon Hill, July 5, 1934.

Photo: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco, CA

1934: The Big Strike--a Menu

The 1934 waterfront strike in San Francisco is by all accounts a seminal event in class relations in the city. There are accounts of this period in many history books, some of which are referenced below. We present a series of screens with texts, photos, captions, and videos that attempt to present the basic story. It follows this sequence:

Strike Begins

1934 Strike Tear Gas Competition

July 5, 1934

Bloody Thursday

July 9 Funeral

Vigilante Raids

National Guard

Newsreel

Media Distortion


July 10 34 strikers block belt line railroad AAD-4983.jpg

Strikers block Beltline Railroad, July 10, 1934.

Photo: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco, CA


1934-tourists-walk-up-Market-with-no-streetcar-service.jpg

Market Street during 1934 strike, newly arrived tourists walk up street in absence of streetcar service.

Photo: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco, CA

READ MORE:

A Terrible Anger: The 1934 Waterfront and General Strikes in San Francisco by David F. Selvin, Wayne State University: Detroit, 1996.

Strike! by Jeremy Brecher, South End Press: Boston, 1972.

American Labor Struggles by Samuel Yellen © 1936, Monad Press edition: New York, 1974.

The Labor Wars by Sidney Lens, Anchor/Doubleday: New York, 1974.

The Big Strike by Mike Quin, Olema Books: 1948.

On The Drumhead by Mike Quin, Daily People's World: San Francisco, 1948.

The Big Strike: A Pictorial History of the 1934 SF General Strike with a narrative by Warren Hinckle, Silver Dollar Books: Virginia City, Nevada, 1985.

The March Inland: Origins of the ILWU Warehouse Division 1934-1938 by Harvey Schwartz, International Longshore and Warehouse Union: San Francisco, 2000.

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